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BIRDS' EYE VIEW OF LEADING ROUTES TO TUSCALOOSA, ALA. 




THE 



City of Tuskaloosa, 

Its Many Advantages as a Manufacturing Point 

AND as a Place of Residence, the Facts 

THAT Make it the 



PITTSBURGH of the SOUTH. 

Including a Prospectus of the 

Tuskaloosa Coal Iron & Land Company, 

ORGANIZED JANUARY i^TH, 1887. 



TUSKALOOSA, - - ALABAMA, 

•:• 1887. •:• 



Press of Keating & Co., Mercantile and General Printers, 
130 ^Valnut street, Cincinnati. 






S-5rCrcl&)^^^FATHN OOGA 




G ULJP 



KXPtANATIOA'S . 

^^^i^ CoAu Areas 
•^"^^^ RE3 Iron One Ridges-. 
<=''=> Bro«vv (RON Ore- Beds. 
=— BROKEN LINES INCLOSE TOWNSHIPS WHEREIN ARE 
SITUATED THE MINERAL LaNDS BELONGING TO THE 

Tuscaloosa Coal. Iron and Land Co, 



DiREcr River CoMMUNtcATian 

BETWEEN THE NE-IGHSQRINQ MINERAL 

Recioks and the gulf of MEXICO . 
Scale 6 miles to one inth. 
1SS7 



THE 

CITY OF TUSKALOOSA. 



T^== 

I Uo Iv A LOOoA is situated upon a high, level and 

I well-drained plateau at the head of navigation on the 

I Warrior River. It has an abundant supply of the purest 

* water, and the healthfulness of the locality is proverbial. 

To the south stretches the broad alluvial bottoms of the Warrior 

River, whose fertile acres yield the finest crops of corn, hay 

and cotton, while to the north lies the great Warrior coal field, 

which is now just on the eve of a mighty development. 

In fact, the city itself, to use the strong language of Prof. 
Henry McCalley, Assistant State Geologist of Alabama, in his 
report upon the Warrior coal field, " Stands on the greatest thick- 
ness of coal measures in the known world, and in thickness of 
coal second only to that of West Virginia." 



ITS PKESENT POPULATION, INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES AND 
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 

Inside of the corporate limits of Tuskaloosa and its immediate 
suburbs (including the town of Northport, which is imme- 
diately across the Warrior River, and is connected with the city 
by an iron bridge), is a population of at least six thousand souls. 
A recent school census shows that this population is on a steady 
increase, and even without any marked industrial awakening it 
would continue to grow, on account of its fine agricultural sur- 
roundings, large commercial territory, and superior educational 
and social advantages It has two of the largest and best equipped 
female colleges in the South: the "Alabama Central Female Col- 
lege," and the " Tuskaloosa Female College." The University High 
School for boys, in addition to its local patronage, draws a large 
number of boarders from other points in the State, while as the 



TUSKALOOSA. 



seat of the great University of Alabama, Tuskaloosa offers unri- 
valled facilities to the young men of this and other States. And 
the graded public schools of this city stand deservedly among the 
first schools of the Nation. 

But it is not alone as an educational centre that Tuskaloosa 
stands already among the most prominent towns of Alabama ; 
for it already has here and in the near vicinity, two large cotton 
mills, a rope and yarn mill, and a cotton-seed oil mill in successful 
operation; and its receipts of cotton range from twelve to seven- 
teen thousand bales per annum ; and the erection of a compress 
here (which is a matter of the near future), will largely increase 
the amount of cotton handled. There are a number of other 
industries now in successful operation in Tuskaloosa, such as 
foundry, sash and blind factory, large brick and tile works, etc., etc. 
The fact that Tuskaloosa was once the political capital of 
Alabama — before the removal of the State government to Mont- 
gomery, in 1846 — and that it has been since the earliest history of 
the Commonwealth the educational centre of the State, has drawn 
to its citizenship men of means and culture, and their taste is seen 
in the many elegant homes that adorn the city. Many of the 
most handsome residences are surrounded by spacious grounds 
carefully laid out and ornamented with great variety of trees and 
shrubbery. The streets are broad (avenues rather than streets), 
and most of them shaded by triple rows of the magnificent w^ater- 
oaks, which have given the place the name of the Druid City. 
The principal streets are well graded, and the natural drainage of 
the city is j^erfect. Tuskaloosa has two newspapers : the Ti7nes 
and the Gazette ; and, in a word, the place has all the elements 
of agreeable, healthful, cultivated living, with all the undeveloped 
advantages and possibilities of a frontier-booming town — a con- 
dition of affairs not often met with. Her healthfulness and beauty 
of location and excellent agricultural surroundings, purest free- 
stone spring and well water, perfect natural drainage into a 
navigable river running through the corporation, combined with 
immediate proximity to best quality cooking coal and fire clay 
(underlying the city), iron ore (in five miles), lime-stone (less 
than twelve miles), building-stone (less than five miles), and 
virgin forests of long-leaf yellow pine, oak, poplar, ash, cyprus, 
cedar, etc., etc., will challenge the world for a rival. 



TUSKALOOSA. 



ITS UATUEAL ADVANTAGES. 

THE inestimable advantages of Tuskaloosa's location will be 
better understood, perhaps, if we compare the geographical 
features of the Alabama mineral region with those of another 
great section of the country where mineral resources and manu- 
facturing are the main interests. It may, in the first place, be 
broadly stated, that in no section of the United States, or of the 
world, does there exist a manufacturing city of the first class away 
from a navigable stream. For the economical transportation of 
articles of bulk and weight, such as the manufactured articles 
of iron, mineral ore and coal, a waterway, either as an actual agent 
of transport, or, as a controller of competition, has been proved 
by long experience to be a necessity. This necessity has of late 
been intensified by the passage of what is known as the " Inter- 
State Commerce Bill," and, indeed, if this legislative enactment 
is construed according to its apparent intent, it is diflficult to see 
how Alabama iron can reach New York and the Eastern markets 
with a heavy discrimination against it in freight, except by water, 
or from points where railroad rates are conti'olled by water 
competition. 

Tuskaloosa is situated at the head of navigation of the only water 
outlet to the Alabama mineral field, the Alabama not touching the 
field at any point, and the Coosa being entirely closed, by obstruc- 
tions and if we proceed to compare the Alabama mineral field with 
its great counterpart, that of Pennsylvania, we will find that Tuska- 
loosa is situated in regard to the former exactly as Pittsbui'g is to 
the latter, each being at the head of navigation of the water outlet 
of its respective section — and if, going further, we compare these 
two waterways, we will find, strange as it may sound, that the 
Warrior River even now is open to navigation more months in 
the year than is the Ohio from Pittsburg to Cincinnati ; the period 
during which the Warrior is open averaging seven months, while 
the Ohio, counting the period of ice closure, which has no place 
on the Warrior, is not open more than^T;^. 

In illustration and proof of the above statement, the following 
letter from the talented and experienced United States Engineer 
now in charge of the river. Col. H. Harding, will be found of 
much interest, containing, as it does, in compact and authoritative 
shape the essential facts of the matter. Col. Harding says, in a 
communication to the Mayor of Tuskaloosa, dated, 



TUSKALOOSA. 



TusKALoosA, June 20th, 1886. 
Hon. W. C. Jemison, Mayor ; 

Dear Sir : — I take pleasure in complying with the request contained in 
your note of May 15th, and regret that absence from home should have pre- 
vented an earlier response. 

In its present condition, the average boating season on the Warrior 
extends from the middle of November to the middle of June, a period of seven 
months. The past season (not yet closed, the river now being at 40 feet on 
the gauge at this place), may be safely stated at 8)^ months. Occasionally, 
as in 1877, we have ten months, and sometimes, on the other hand, not more 
than six. But, for a fair average, we may take seven months as the duration 
of the boating stage of not less than six feet, or four feet above low water. 
Moreover, a boating stage of a week to ten day's duration, very generally 
occurs from one to three times between June and November. 

The width of the Warrior, below Tuskaloosa, is from 150 to 400 feet 
between banks, but where bars occur, the full width is not available for navi- 
gation at the lowest boating stage, the channel being confined to chutes of 100 
to 125 feet in width at the water line, and not over 40 to 50 feet wide at the 
6 feet depth. Hence for a full tow of three barges, (75 feet in width and 
drawing 6 feet), the river is not at present navigable on a 4-foot stage above 
low water ; an 8-foot stage would be required to give sufficient depth on the 
bars or width in the chutes. 

Perennial navigation below Tuskaloosa would require the adoption of 
the slack-water system, for which the river is well adapted — the slope of the 
low-water surface being but 4 inches to the mile, but few locks would be 
required ; probably one to every 30 or 40 miles. 

From Tuskaloosa to Demopolis, 140 miles, a tow on a good stage of water, 
need not consist of less than 3 barges of the largest size, viz. : 130 x 24, 
the capacity of the tow with 6 feet draft being 1,500 tons. Such a tow is 
propelled on the Ohio, by a tug 90 x 20, which (writes a gentleman of large 
experience in the business) '• handles three of the largest barges, landing them 
in swift current at any time, and in storm, or in case of accident." 

From Demopolis to Mobile, 250 miles, the Tombigbee has a width of 250 
to 500 feet, and a tow of the size used on the Ohio would be practicable. 
Probably these three tows irom the Warrior would be coupled together at 
Demopolis, and taken to Mobile by a large-size tow-boat, the three small 
boats returning up the Warrior with the empties brought up by the large 
boat. 

I have several times estimated from the best data obtainable the probable 
cost of tonage from Tuskaloosa, and have never found it to be more than 35 
cents per ton. The objection to such estimates is, that they lack verification 
by experience. It is more satisfactory, therefore, to estimate by comparison 
with similar cases elsewhere. Now the Pittsburg Board of Trade, in a me- 
morial to Corgress, in 1S77, stated that coal was towed to Loviisville, 600 
miles, at a cost of 25 cents per ton, and to New Orleans, 2000 miles, for 80 cents 
per ton. The cost per mile is the same in each case, — 4. 10 of a mill per mile, — 
and shows that the cost of transportation, other things being equal, varies as 
to the distance. The capacity of the tows was stated at 4,000 tons. The gross 



TUSKALOOSA. 



expense of running a small tow would not be quite as great as that of a large 
one, owing to the smaller consumption of fuel, but assuming it to be the same, 
we would have, as the cost of the Warrior tow (1,500 tons), 1.08 mills per ton 
per mile, equal to 41 cents from Tuskaloosa to Mobile. But by coupling at 
Demopolis, as suggested above, we would have a tow of 4.500 tons, for 240 
miles, at 0.355 °f ^ mill, and the cost per ton would be 

140 miles, at 1.08 mills 15 cents per ton. 

240 " " 3-55 " 8>^" 

Total 233^ " 

If we should be obliged to limit ourselves to two barges, the cost would 
even then (coupling at Demopolis as before) not exceed 35 cents per ton. 

The present facilities aftbrded bj the Warrior, it seems to me, are not 
fully appreciated or utilized as they might be. A river that gives seven 
months of uninterrupted navigation, is a boon, that in manj' places would be 
gladly accepted, and not treated with neglect because it did not give more. 

The Erie Canal is open but eight months in the year, and many of the 
Northern streams are closed by ice in the winter, yet these channels are 
thronged with commerce while they can be used. 

It may be interesting to compare the navigable season. of the Warrior 
with that of the Ohio, and I accordingly give below a table of columns, of 
which No. I shows from the records of 22 years, the average number of days 
in each month during which the Ohio, at Pittsburg, had 6 feet and over in its 
channel. 

No. 2 shows the corresponding table for the Warrior, in 1885, and No. 3 
the number of days, for the same year, during which a 10 feet depth existed. 

I think the 3'ear 1885 gives a little better showing for the Warrior than a 
just average ; but I use that year as it happens to be the only full record that 
I have at hand : 

No. I. No. 2. No. 3. 

January iS 31 24 

February 16 28 28 

March 25 31 22 

April 26 30 30 

May 17 25 12 

June 8 30 28 

July 5 17 o 

August 4 • o o 

September 5 10 2 

October 5 5 3 

November 9 30 20 

December 17 31 21 

155 268 200 

From the above it appears that, taking 1885 as a criterion, the Warrior 
gives more days for towing, even in its present condition, than the Ohio, and 
that with the contemplated improvements perfected, the towing season will 



TUSKALOOSA. 



equal that of the Erie Canal. Of course, perennial navigation will add con- 
siderably to the value of the Warrior, and it is not to be doubted that the 
Government will provide for it when business demands, since the General 
Goverment alone can undertake it. The work is as much outside the province 
of private enterprise, or the State, as would be the building of a postoffice or 
custom-house, and therefore when the commercial necessities of the com- 
munity require it it will be the duty of the Government to afford the facilities 
needed. 

Very truly yours, 

H. HARDING, 

(7. S. Rngineer i?i Charge. 

Not only is this the case, but the Warrior, according to the 
report of the United States Engineers, can be opened the entire 
year., for the comparatively trifling sum of $400,000 (and this will, 
beyond question, be done in the near future), while the Ohio, 
after the expenditure of milHons upon it, has only attained the 
maximum of five months stated above. Surveys are now being 
made by the Government in order to formulate a plan for the 
all-year-round opening of the lower Warrior (below Tuskaloosa), 
and a large sum is available and will be expended this season on 
the river above, with a view of opening up by water the heart of 
the Warrior coal fields, through which it runs. 

Not only is Tuskaloosa thus favored in having a water outlet, 
but she is also favored in the geographical direction of it. Other 
Southern towns have both mineral facilites and water trans- 
portation ; Chattanooga, for instance ; and Sheffield and Florence ; 
but there is one grand and cardinal distinction between the 
Tennessee River and the Warrior. The Tennessee leads down 
into the very focus and fiery-furnace of competition — down the 
Ohio to meet products. Out of the Tennessee come the cheap 
irons and coals of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia — down 
the Missipppi, those of Missouri and lUinois. In other words, the 
Tennessee leads to where iron and coal are both naturally at their 
cheapest outside the South. 

Heavy freights, however, down the Warrior, would go all 
by water to the entire Atlantic and Gulf coasts, where lie, as yet, 
the great centers of consumption. In other words, away from 
the centers of production, and, consequently, to where iron tends 
to be dearest. And once the Isthmus is opened, as it certainly 
will be soon, one way or the other, they would have the monopoly 
of the Pacific coast, against heavy freights shipped say from 
Pittsburg, across the entire continent by land. Moreover, when 



TUSKALOOSA. 



the Isthmus is opened, the commerce of the world will be sucked, 
so to speak, through the Gulf, and freights to the entire coast of the 
United States would, by competition, be brought to a minimum, 
and ballast freights even become common, and carriage from 
Tuskaloosa to New York be brought lower on iron than from 
Pittsburg, which would constitute a momentous revolution. We 
turn now from the consideration of this great natural advantage of 
water outlet which lacking, can by no human exertion be supplied, 
to the subject of those great artificial highways, known as rail- 
roads, and will proceed to show what are Tuskaloosa's present 
and prospective advantages in this respect. By turning to the 
map herewith attached, there will be seen at a glance the present 
and future railroads running, and to run, into the place. The Ala- 
bama Great Southern, the back-bone of the great Queen & 
Crescent system, we already have. The Tuskaloosa Northern, 
which will cut square through the heart of the great Warrior coal 
field, developing the company's immense body of coal and tirriber- 
lands at every step, and connecting tis with both the Kansas City 
and Georgia Pacific roads, is being constructed as fast as it is in 
the power of man to do it. The branch of the Louisville & 
Nashville, known as the Mineral Road, has been for years extend- 
ng itself towards Tuskaloosa, and is now lying at wait within 
only twenty-five miles, with an exceptionally easy country between, 
and will, beyond all question or doubt, come on as soon as our 
various improvements are under way, and thus give us parallel 
and competing lines to the railroad centre at Birmingham. The 
road to Macon, Miss., will be built before a great while, and will 
connect us with the great Mobile and Ohio stem, and as a road is 
to be built from there to Jackson, Miss., will also connect us with 
the Illinois Central at that place, and with the Mississippi River 
at Natchez. These are all connections that can, we think, with 
certainty be counted on as soon to be made. 

Besides this, the Tuskaloosa Northern, or a connection there- 
with, will ultimately go on and connect us with the Tennessee at 
Florence and Sheffield, and a road going south will connect us by 
an air line with Mobile. 

So much for our present and future means of ingress and 
egress for articles of manufacture and commerce. We will now, 
as succinctly as possible, consider Tuskaloosa's facilities for the 
production of the one, and the disposal of the other ; for the 
advantages of the place are as great for the establishment of a 




LONG LEAF YELLOW PINE, ON WARRIOR COAL LANDS, NEAR TUSKALOOSA. 



TUSKALOOSA. 



commercial and jobbing center, as for the building up of a great 
manufacturing city. 

As to the manufacture of iron, it will give point and meaning 
to what we wish to say, especially to a Northern ear, to state 
broadly, that at Tuskaloosa we have all the raw materials, coal, ore 
and lime-stone as cheap, as accessible and as abundant as at Birm- 
ingham. . The details and figures showing this fact will be found 
in the special article on the manufacture of iron and coke at Tuska- 
loosa. See page I3. 

For the manufacture of all articles made from wood our 
resources and advantages are equally great. On the line of the 
Tuskaloosa Northern Railroad is an immense body of the finest 
virgin long-leaf yellow pine, within eight miles of town ; the 
largest body of untouched timber so near a centre of consumption, 
perhaps, in the State. On the same body of lands are great 
quantities of hard woods : ash, oak, cedar, gum, beech, etc., 
•suitable to the manufacture of almost everything made from wood ; 
as agricultural implements, furniture, handles, staves, wooden- 
ware, etc., etc. 

Tuskaloosa's advantages for the manufacture of cotton, con- 
sidering her proximity to both the cotton and the coal fields which 
intersect exactly at this point, and the consequent fact that both 
material and fuel will be at a minimum here, need only to be 
stated to be recognized. 

The facts connected with these various branches of industry 
.are further elaborated in the special article on each, which follow 
the general sketch of the advantages of Tuskaloosa. We turn 
now to the commercial capabilities of the place. 

South of it stretches what is known as the Great Black Belt 
of Alabama, one of the finest countries of the world. A great 
prairie, with soil of bottomless depth and inexhaustible fertility, 
where cotton is the grand staple, and all other supplies are pur- 
chased with the proceeds of this one crop. In other words, it is 
a never-satiated market, for grain, meat, provisions and supplies 
of all kinds, as well as for agricultural implements, plows, culti- 
vators, reapers, mowers, wagons, furnitui"e, gin machinery ; in a 
-word, all sorts of manufactured articles of both wood and iron, 
nine-tenths of which now come from north of the Ohio River, but 
-which should and will be manufactured here, from cheaper 
material, and with the additional profit of the entire freight from 
Northern points to this place. 



TUSKALOOSA. 



All that we have said in i-egard to the Alabama cotton belt 
applies with equal force to the region of the Mississippi lying 
west of us, and with which we will be connected by the Macon 
Road. 

Now over the Kansas City and over the A. G. S. R. R. will 
come to us the cheap grain, meat and supplies of Kansas, Missouri, 
Ohio and Illinois, to supply the demands of this great agricultural 
region. Our river opens it up to us from end to end, and a road 
to Mobile will pass directly through it. Under the present system 
of Southern agriculture, the point furnishing the supplies to make 
the cotton, controls the sale and secures the handling of it, and 
the volume of trade thus centered here necessarily must be 
immense. 

Possessing then such a combination of advantages, we cannot 
but feel that the future of the place is assured, and that the Tuska- 
loosa of the future will in no great space of time, be one great 
pulsing heart of manufacture and commerce, into which will pour 
the breadstufts of the West and the cotton of the South, for 
grateful interchange, and out from which will stream down the 
Warrior the accumulated wealth of untold ages in the shape of all 
manufactured articles of iron, wood and cotton, and piled up 
barges of coal in unending flow to the ocean outlet at Mobile, to 
be taken on all the winds and tides to all ports on the American 
coast, while in ceaseless, shuttle-like play, back and forth over her 
radiating roads, her never-resting trains will distribute her natural 
and manufactured products to all points of the interior of our 
great continent. This may sound like extravagance, but we are 
convinced that it lacks only time to be fact instead of prophecy. 
Tuskaloosa and Mobile are destined by nature to be the two 
largest cities of Alabama. 

In the following pages we add to the foregoing general state- 
ment of the surroundings of the place a separte and succinct 
summary of the various advantages which would be enjoyed by 
particular lines of industry located here. This arrangement will 
of course involve some repetition, but will, we think, from a 
business point of view, be found satisfactory. 

ADVANTAGES OF TUSKALOOSA AS A POINT TOR THE MANU- 
FACTURE OF IRON AND OOKE. 

THE advantages of the place in this respect can be very suc- 
cinctly and convincingly stated. Tukaloosa has all the raw 
materials for iron making as cheap and accessible as any place in 



TUSKALOOSA. I3 



the State. The Red Mountain ores of Bii-mingham extend down 
the A. G. S. R. R., unbroken to within 17 miles of Tuskaloosa. 

There is ah'eady developed on the lands of the Tuskaloosa 
Coal, Iron and Land Company, immediately on the line of 
the A. G. S. R. R., a vein of fine, soft Red Ore, 16 feet 
thick, which on a strictly business analysis of the entire face 
of the vein shows 47 per cent, of metallic Iron and only 
136 of phosphorus. In the immediate vicinity of this opening is a 
very large deposit of fine limestone, assaying 95 per cent, pure 
Carbonate of Lime. Within 5 miles of town are large deposits 
of fine Brown Ore. On the L. & N. Mineral R. R., which will 
unquestionably come into Tuskaloosa in a short time, the iron ore 
comes down unbroken from Birmingham to below Woodstock, 
or within about 30 miles, in inexhaustible profusion, both red and 
brown. 

As to coke, the situation is, if possible, even more favorable. 
According to the opinion of the best posted geologists, the famous 
Pratt vein, which is Birmingham's coke source, actually underlies 
the town. The general character of the coal of the countv is set 
forth in the following extracts from the last report of the State 
Geologist : 

The Coal Measures of this county are believed to be thicker than in any 
other part of the Warrior field, or in any other field of the known world. 
* * * There are in these measures some fifty-three seams of 

coal, which vary in thickness from about two inches to fourteen feet, and which 
have an aggregate thickness of about 125 feet of pure coal. Of these fifty- 
three coal seams, twenty-five are of Avorkable thickness, or contain eighteen 
inches and over of pure coal. Of these twenty-five seams, fourteen have two 
feet six inches and over of coal ; of these fourteen seams, nine have over four 
feet of coal ; and of these nine seams, three have more than six feet in thick- 
ness of coal. * * * Among these coals are to be found, 
seemingly, almost every variety of bituminous coal ; some of them are bright 
and hard, and are well adapted to handling and stocking, while others are of 
a duller color and are of a friable and crumbly nature ; some of them seem 
to be especially fitted for coking and blacksmithing purposes, while others 
might be called steam or heating coals, and others still gas coals. * * * 
Much of this coal, however, stands weathering finely, for frequently around 
the old pits there are piles of lumpy coal that have been lying out in the weather 
for from thirty to forty years. * -■■ * The Warrior coal field has 
inexhaustible quarries of the best of building and paving stones, and the 
greatest quantitj' of as fine timber as can be found anywhere. — State Geo- 
logical Report, 1886, Tuskaloosa Couyity. 

The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company owns lands 
all over the section referred to, and has already tested a thick 



TUSKALOOSA. 15 



vein only eight miles from Tuskaloosa with fine results, produc- 
ing a coke equal to any in the State. It also owns larg-e bodies 
of land in the famous Big and Little Basin region, which will 
furnish to Bessemer its coke, and whose coal has been fully 
tested by the Bessemer Company. 

In fact so abundant are coking coals in the region that, con- 
sidering the advantages which Tuskaloosa will possess for ship- 
ment, both by rail and by water, and the facilities which it will 
thus possess for supplying both the furnace demand of the north 
Alabama mineral district and the foundry, domestic, and general 
coke trade of Mobile, New Orleans, Texas — and, when the Isth- 
mus is opened, of the entire Pacific coast for general, and especi- 
ally for smelting use in the silver and gold money industries tribu- 
tary to that coast — it seems evident that here is the proper point 
for the location of a Southern Connellsville, for which the time is 
evidently ripe. 

This question of a center of Southern coke supply is becom- 
ing a very important and stringent one. The furnace development 
of the section is so far in advance of the coke supply that there is 
already a very serious scarcity which will soon become a famine. 
The connection which has hitherto existed in Alabama between 
iron making and coke making is a local and really an unnatural one. 
Coke making should be made a business of itself, and there does 
not exist a finer opportunity for the development of an immense 
industry than is ofTered in Tuskaloosa in the manufacture of coke. 

All the materials for the manufacture of iron are thus to be 
had at Tuslialoosa as cheap and accessible as at Birmingham or 
any point in the State. In net addition to this it has the finest 
natural drainage, abundance of free water, (this costs one of the 
Birmingham furnaces $20 per day) and, most important of all, a 
water outlet for heavy freights. 

Nowhere in the world does there exist a first-class manufac- 
turing city away from a navigable river. Universal experience 
has shown that as an actual avenue of transport, or as a controller 
of competition, a water outlet is necessary to a manufacturing 
point shipping heavy freights. Tuskaloosa has a river which is 
now open seven or eight months in the year, or a longer 
time than the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, which river 
is under survey by the Government to be opened all year. This 
power affords all water transportation to the entire Atlantic and 
Gulf coast of the United States, and as soon as the Isthmus is 




RIVER ]}ANK WARRIOR COAI. FIELDS, TUSKALOOSA, ALA. FOOT SEAM. 



TUSKAI.OOSA. 17 



Opened, to the Pacific coast Iron can be carried to Mobile all 
down stream for 25 cents per ton. It can be carried to New 
York or Boston for $2 from Mobile, in all say $2.25. It costs now 
overland to these pomts perhaps four times this amount. In 
addition, when the Isthmus opens, the shipping of the world 
will pass through the Gulf and ballast freights to all points will 
become common. 

In a word, Tuskaloosa, with all other advantages enjoyed by 
any other place in the State, and the addition of this water 
way, which renders her independent of all Inter-State Commerce 
Bills and railroad pooling, is certainly superior to them in natural 
advantages for the manufacture of iron, coke, and the mining of 
coal. 

AS A POINT FOE THE MANUFAOTUEE OF OOTTON GOODS. 

TUSKALOOSA'S advantages for this branch of manufacture 
can be very clearly and convincingly stated. The cotton, 
in the first place, is at her very door. She is on the head waters 
of the Black Warrior River, and the Warrior River bottom is one 
of the finest cotton producing sections in the South. Coal will 
be cheaper heie, perhaps, than at any other point in the South. 
The reasons why this will be so, are shown in the extracts from 
the report of the State Geologist. Labor is also cheap, and thus, 
all factors entering into the cost of production are, at Tuskaloosa, 
at a minimum 

The A. G. S. Railroad, by its extensive Texas connections, 
gives fine entry into that immense market, and also runs through 
north to Cincinnati and also south to New Orleans. 

The river is a competing avenue to the same region, and will 
ofTer a route to the Pacific coast, and to the great China market, 
when the Isthmus is opened, which would guarantee cheaper 
freights on cotton goods shipped all-water from Tuskaloosa to 
these points than could possibly be obtained by the same goods 
shipped by land across the entire width of the continent from 
New England or other interior points. 

In addition, the extension of the branch of the L. & N. Rail- 
road, known as the " Mineral Road," to Tuskaloosa, is only a mat- 
ter of a short time, and a road (The Tuskaloosa Northern), which 
runs north through the lands of the Company to the Georgia Pa- 
cific and Kansas City roads, is now under construction. A road has 
been surveyed from Tuskaloosa west to Macon, Mississippi, which 



TUSKALOOSA. 



will connect us both with the finest cotton fields of Mississippi 
and with the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and by a road which will 
be built from Macon to Jackson, Miss., with the Mississippi River 
at Natchez, making thus an outlet for cotton goods in all direc- 
tions. 

Tuskaloosa has the evidence of her adaptation to the cotton 
cloth manufacturing, in two flourishing cotton mills, long since 
established and in successful operation ; one on the river bank at 
Tuskaloosa and one a short distance up the A. G. S. Railroad, at 
Cottondale. Both these mills have run continuously through the 
dullest times, and are of the most money-making establishments 
in the country. 



AS A POINT FOE THE MANUFAOTTJEE OF BEIGK. 

THE Clays all around the place are most especially adapted to 
brick-making. The public buildings, of which there are so 
many about the place, have been built of brick made at Tuska- 
loosa. 

A large brick-making establishment recently established 
here (The Tuskaloosa Brick and Tile Company), are making a 
beautiful pressed brick which they are shipping in large quantities 
to Bessemer, Birmingham and other points on the A. G S. R. R. 
So fine is the clay that this company is making arrangements to 
manufacture an oiled pressed brick for fine facing work. In ad- 
dition to this fine material for common brick, immediately adja- 
cent to the town, and on the railroad, are large deposits of a 
superior quality of fire-clay, finely adapted to the manufacture of 
coke-oven brick, drain tile, sewer-pipe and jug ware. It has been 
already largely used for the last-named purpose. The common 
brick material overlays, in many localities, the fire-clay, so that 
both materials w^ould be upon the same ground, and no labor 
lost in handling either. These facts, in view of the enormously in- 
creasing demand for coke in the State, which will necessitate the 
immediate erection of thousands of coke ovens, are of great im- 
portance. The demand for brick of all sorts is already very great, 
and far in excess of the supply, and profits calculated on the cost 
of making brick at Tuskaloosa are very large. 

The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company has, immedi- 
ately upon the railroad, large bodies of this clay land, and is 



TUSKALOOSA. 



prepared to make favorable arrangements with parties meaning 
business in this connection. 

There is every reason why Tuskaloosa should become an 
immense Brick and Tile center. 

AS A POINT rOE THE MANUFAOTUEE OF AGEIOULTUEAL IM- 
PLEMENTS, WAGONS, AND FAEM APPLI- 
ANCES GENEEALLY. 

T^USKALOOSA is situated on the nothern edge of the great 
" Black Belt,' one of the greatest cotton and corn-producing 
regions in the South, and lies at the head of navigation on the 
Warrior river, which flows into the Tombigbee, and in con- 
nection with this last river, bisects and opens up to her this 
entire region. She will shortly be connected by a road running 
from Tuskaloosa to Macon, Miss., on the Mobile and Ohio, with 
a similar region in Mississippi. Both these sections of country 
are almost exclusively agricultural, and both are finely adapted, 
(being level prairie and devoid of rocks) to the use of labor-saving 
machinery; and as a matter of fact, are using to an increasing 
extent every year, buggy-plows, cultivators, reapers, mowers, 
corn and cotton-planters, besides, of course, an immense amount 
of the ordinary' plows and farm utensils. All or nearly all of these 
things come as yet from north of the Ohio river, being made of 
higher- priced iron than the South affords, and coming to the 
maiket loaded with a heavy freight rate. At Tuskaloosa iron and 
coal will be at their cheapest, and on the lands of the company 
north of town, which will be opened up by the Tuskaloosa North- 
ern Railroad, are the greatest profusion of white ash, hickory, 
white oak, red oak, and all hard woods necessary in the manu- 
facture of the implements and machines mentioned. The saving 
in freight would be a net addition of profit over the Northern- 
made article. 

In addition to the extensive territory immediately accessible 
from the city, the wide-spreading Texas connections of the 
A. G. S. R. R., bring that immense and ever-growing market in 
easy reach. The Warrior River, by way of Mobile, affords 
another and competing route to this territory. When the Isthmus 
is opened, as it doubtless will be by one or other of the plans 
contemplated, all heavy machinery should go by this all-water 
route to the Pacific coast at a cheaper freight, than by any other 
possible way. 



TUSKALOOSA. 2l 



This outlet to water to Mobile, coupled with the cheapness of 
the material, makes Tuskaloosa an especially fine point for the 
manufacture of farming machinery for shipment not only to all 
points in the United States, but to South America, and with the 
Isthmus opened to China, Japan, and the East in general, as well 
as to its large immediately surrounding territory. 

Manufacturers already having a trade in this section, would 
certainly find it greatly to their advantage to establish branch 
factories here, where material of all kinds is cheaper than at home, 
and where the freight saved would be an additional profit, and 
where they would, by such a step, forestall certain future local 
competition. We commend these points especially to considera- 
tion. 

The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company stands pre- 
pared to oflfer every reasonable encouragement and assistance to 
parties wishing to enter on the manufacture of such articles as are 
mentioned in this circular, and solicits correspondence, and will 
welcome visits of inspection from such parties. 

AS A POINT FOE THE MANUFACTURE OF FURNITURE, 
WOODENWARE, ETC. 

ABOVE Tuskaloosa, on the lands of the Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron 
Z' and Land Company, on the line of the Tuskaloosa Northern 
Railroad, are large bodies of fine red cedar, poplar, long-leaf yellow 
pine, white ash, black-gum, curl pine, beech, hickory, white and 
other oaks and other woods adapted to the above uses. The value of 
the red cedar for buckets, churns and all sorts of wooden -ware, is 
a matter of course and needs no comment; so with the poplar 
and ash and oak. The three last are finely adapted to furni- 
ture-making. The curl pine makes a graining unsurpassed, far 
superior to the oak. The black-gum makes a fine imitation walnut, 
and is to be had in great quantities. The poplar is also in large 
quantities and very fine, as is also the white oak and ash. The 
nearest furniture factory of any size is, we believe, at Chattanooga, 
and the nearest wooden-ware manufacturing establishment at 
Nashville. Thus the supply of material is abundant and very 
cheap, and the trade territory very large. The freight saved 
would be a handsome additional profit over more distant manu- 
factories. 

We only ask an investigation of our claims from parties look- 



22 TUSKALOOSA. 



ing to the establishment of such enterprises in the South. We 
would also like to direct the attention of those in these lines of 
manufacture now contemplating a change of situation, to the 
great opening offered by the large territory sun'ounding Tuska- 
loosa which di'aws its supplies from a distance at a heavy cost for 
freight, and at the same time, to this abundance of cheap material 
lying ready to be worked to supply their wants at home. 

The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company stands pre- 
pared to offer every reasonable encouragement and assistance ta 
parties wishing to enter on the manufacture of such articles as are 
mentioned in this circular, and solicits correspondence, and will 
welcome visits of inspection from such parties. 

TAEMINa ADVANTAGES OP THE OOUNTRY ABOUND 
TUSKALOOSA. 

"TTHE farming lands around Tuskaloosa are divided into three 
^^ oreneral classes, ist, the bottom lands along: the Warrior 
River, which are among the richest in the State, producing from 
forty to sixty bushels of corn, and from a half to a bale of cotton^ 
and two to four tons of hay, cut three times per season. These 
lands are subject to malaria, but are handled as follows : At some 
distance back from the river, a second tier of lands comes in, 
locally called the second bottom. These, though quite fertile, are 
higher, of thinner soil than the other, and quite healthy. Upon 
this tier the resident owner lives in health and goes down into the 
bottom only during the day to work, returning at night to sleep 
on the dry and salubrious uplands. 

The second tier, though not so luxuriantly fertile as the lower 
one, is excellent land and is of great extent and suitable for all 
sorts of grain; corn, oats, wheat, etc., as well as cotton. Back of 
this comes the true upland table-land, upon which the city of 
Tuskaloosa is situated. This is healthful, well watered, just roll- 
ing enough for good drainage, and although the soil is thinner 
than that of the other two regions, this portion of the country is 
finely adapted for all sorts of truck farming and fruit growing. 
It responds generously to manuixs, which is retained on account 
of its level character and good clay foundation, and grows grapes, 
peaches, melons, and berries to perfection, and brings them forward 
early. It also makes, with manures, fine cotton and corn. Here,, 
then, are all varieties of soil. The strong black river bottom for 



TUSKALOOSA. 



heavy crops of corn, cotton and hay. The medium soil of the 
second bottom, almost as productive as the othei and atiording 
healthful residence, and the thinner sandy loam for market, gar- 
den aSiid early fruits. With all this is a climate where an inch of 
ice is a great rarity, and stock can go unhoused the winter long; 
and where the farming season begins in February and does not 
end until November, and as many as three crops, properly 
selected, c;in be raised in a single year. 

The region is finely adapted to stock raising It was formerly 
deficient in natural grasses, but a singular circumstance has oc- 
curred which has entirely changed the situation in this respect. 
A variety of the clover family, known as Lespedeza, or Japanese 
clover a hardy perennial, has, since the war, silently and almost 
unperceived, overspread the entire region. Whence it came no 
one knows, but its beneficent presence is now everywhere making 
the vast " range " of the country capable of supporting great 
quantities of cattle almost the entire season. 

In the midst of this region a vast manufacturing development 
is just now beginning, which will afford a never-satiated market, 
in its hosts of consuming artisans and laborers, for the products of 
all thfese coming farms, truck gardens, orchards and vineyards, 
while the railroad connections, brought about by this develop- , 
ment, will bear off to the early Northern markets, any surplus of 
production which may occur. 

Let all who wish to make their living by farming, where they 
can economize in clothing, in fuel, in cattle feed, and live in health 
and comfort the year round, away from blizzards, and snow, and all 
winter discomforts, investigate for themselves, the claims of the 
country around Tuskaloosa, the coming Pittsburg of the South, 

These lands are adapted to raising corn, oats,wheat, rye, barley, 
rice, in fact, all sorts of grain crops and cotton of course. Also, all 
sort of root crops, turnips, potatoes, beets, carrots, etc. Peas, 
hay, natural and seeded grasses, such as Hungarian, Bermuda, 
Johnson, Millet, Clover, and Crabb grass, which is a natural 
grass, and also two other valuable natural grasses, which are 
known by local names. 

Also grapes, peaches, apples, pears, quinces, apricots, straw- 
berries, raspberries, blackberries in profusion, without cultivation, 
also dewberries and huckleberries; in a word, almost all sorts of 
small fruits, and melons. Almost everything grown in the temper- 
ate and south temperate zones does well around Tuskaloosa. 



TUSKALOOSA. 2^ 



QUANTITIES PRODUCED. 

River bottom lands will produce, on an average, 35 bushels of 
corn to the acre. Some bottom lands vfill make as much as 80 
bushels, same lands f to 3 bales cotton; 20 to 35 bushels oats; 15 
to 25 bushels rye; 3 to 3 tons natural grasses, (hay); 2 to 5 tons 
seeded grasses (hay). 

Upland lands, of course, produce less, unless manured, but 
when this is done, and the land properly treated, will produce as 
much as the other. 

PRICES OF I.AND 

at present, range as follows: Good river lands from 3 to 5 miles 
from town, from $5 to $20. Good upland lands from $3 to $15. 
Large bodies of good farming land at a distance of over 5 miles 
and less than 20 miles could be procured, for from $3 to $10. 
Rights to agricultural use of lands in the Warrior coal fields, finely 
adapted to fruit culture, could be gotten for nominal prices. 

It may be asked, if the above statements are correct, why so 
little, grain, hay, etc., comparatively, is raised in this section? For 
this reason, we will proceed to state to the best of our judgment, it is 
that the adaptability of the country to the raising of these crops is 
only beginning to be appreciated, and, consequently, the mer- 
cantile system of the country has not adapted itself to the changed 
condition. The merchants of the South, as a rule, have been ac- 
customed to handle cotton alone, and, consequentl}^ their capital 
all being employed in this way, their attention and knowledge 
being entirely directed to this quarter, they devoted no part of 
their energies to the handling of these articles, consequently, the 
active farmer who is, as a rule, compelled to depend upon ad- 
vances from the merchants to carry on his business, can not obtain 
this advance upon his corn and hay crops, and can not depend 
with any certainty upon realizing upon them. The production is 
limited by the extent of the home market. This, however, is an 
entirely unnatural and necessarily temporary state of affairs, as 
will be seen by the following statement of facts : 

Certain kinds of hay grown in this section will produce three 
crops a season and at least three tons per acre. This hay is 
perennial: Once a stand is had, it needs no further attention ex- 
cept an occasional bi'eaking up. The cost of cutting and baling 
will not exceed $3 per ton. This hay is worth now in New 
Orleans and Mobile markets $16 per ton. Corn on the average 



26 TUSKALOOSA. 



land of this section, handled intelligently, will not cost over 
twenty-five cents per bushel to raise and deliver at Tuskaloosa for 
adjoining territory. This corn in the home mai'ket sells at sixty- 
five cents the year round, worth now in Mobile and New Orleans 
fifty -five cents. 

This state of aftairs opens up to the enterprising farmer, used 
to raising grain and hay, and to the factor or merchant who will 
turn his attention to handling it, a splendid opportunity. When. 
this is done it is only a question of a short time until the raising of 
these crops, and of poultry, bacon, etc., to which the same chain 
of reasoning applies, will be more profitable than cotton, and 
Tuskaloosa and similar regions in the South will be the producing 
and shipping points for the bulk of the feed supplies required by 
the manufacturing district so rapidly developing, besides shipping 
a great deal to foreign ports. All that we ask in this connection 
is investigation. 



AS A STOOK-EAISING, DAIEY-PARMING AND MEAT-OUEINa 

POINT. 

IN opening this article we would first refer the reader to the 
article in this pamphlet of the farming advantages of the country 
surrounding Tuskaloosa. He will find, on reading this, that large 
tracts of the country immediately adjacent to the town and 
immense bodies tributary thereto, are as finely adapted to raising 
corn, hay and forage of various sorts, as the prairie lands of lUinios 
or Kansas; that its open range is fine natural pasturage and mast, 
and that the winters are so mild and open that ordinary stock 
needs no housing and almost no attention during the winter. 

These conditions for the economical raising of all kinds of 
stock — cattle, sheep, mules, horses, and hogs — exist at the inter- 
section of two large sections of country which for different reasons, 
buy from abroad the bulk of their meat and daily supplies. North 
and northeast lies the rapidly developing mineral and manufactur- 
ino- section of the State known so well to all the world. This, as 
a manufacturing district, and as being in addition a barren and 
unproductive district agriculturally, is a great and constantly-in- 
creasing market for meats and dairy products, draught stock and 
cattle which it now imports from the North and West. To the 
south is the famous " Black Belt," the great cotton raising section 
of the State, while to the west is a similar region in Mississippi. 



TUSKALOOSA. " 2^ 



These, on account of their exclusive devotion to cotton raising, also 
import their meats and live stock. There is no reason why the 
mules, horses and cattle imported into these sections from Ten- 
nessee and Kentucky should not be raised around Tuskaloosa and 
sold at the same profit which the stock raisers of those States 
realize, with the diflference of freight added, nor why the pork 
they use should not be raised on the corn of the Warrior river bot- 
toms, and packed and cured in a Tuskaloosa packing house, with 
the same additional profit. 

In addition there is growing up a large export trade in live 
hogs to Mexico and South America from the port "of New Orleans 
with which we are in direct connection, by the A. G. S. R. R., in 
which we should share. 

With as cheap feed as other points, and the additional advan- 
tage of mild winters, this locality should be a large exporter of 
meats, live stock and dairy products. 

The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company stands pre- 
pared to off'er every reasonable encouragement and assistance to 
parties wishing to embark in any of the industries mentioned 
above, and sohcits correspondence and will welcome visits of m- 
spection from such parties. 

AS A JOBBING AND EETAIL MERCANTILE CENTER. 

THE trade of Tuskaloosa, in view of the coming development of 
the place, may be divided into four classes: ist, the jobbing 
trade; 2d, the retail trade with the farming class; 3d, the retail 
trade with the manufacturing class; 4th, the export trade. We 
will treat them in the order named. 

The place lies at the head of navigation of a stream which, in 
connection with the main stream into which it flows (the Tom- 
bigbee river), cuts clear through the famous Black Belt, the great 
agricultural region of the State, and one of the finest cotton-pro- 
ducing sections of the South; and a railroad has already been 
surveyed and will soon be built, from Tuskaloosa to Macon, Miss., 
connecting this city with a similar region in that State. The 
jobbing territory of the town at the present time extends, also, 
twenty-five miles up the A. G. S. R. R., in the direction of 
Birmingham, and a considerably further distance in the direction 
of Meridian. Throughout the cotton belt are small towns and 
country cross-road stores, and as it is the peculiarity of this section 



28 



TUSKALOOSA. 



to buy the bulk of their suppHes of all kinds, the trade of this 
region is very large in proportion to its resources and population. 

To supply this demand the railroad connections of the city, 
present and future, are most aptly adapted. The Queen and 
Crescent line, which we already have, connects us directly 
with the great meat and grain producing sections of Ohio and 
Illinois. The Tuskaloosa Northern, cutting the Kansas City route, 
will bring to us the even cheaper bread-stuffs and meats of Kansas, 
Missouri, and the great trans-Mississippi food-producing States. 
Under the present condition of Southern agriculture, the point 
which can furnish the supplies most cheaply, conti'ols the handling 
of the cotton — the money crop of the section. A Cotton Com- 
press, which will shortly be erected in Tuskaloosa, will further 
largely increase the cotton receipts. In fact, the want of this has 
been the only reason that the receipts of cotton at Tuskaloosa 
have not been at least three times their present amount. The 
laws of the State in regard to mortgage liens and garnishments, 
are framed in the interest of the merchant and the creditor gener- 
ally, and this circumstance renders trade very safe for the seller, 
both jobber and retailer, and, coupled with the general fact that 
the consumer is compelled to buy on long time, makes the prices 
realized for goods high, and, consequently, the business very 
lucrative. 

2nd. The retail trade of Tuskaloosa with the surrounding 
farming population is quite considerable, and is governed by the 
same conditions in regard to safe dealings and large profits stated 
in connection with the jobbing trade. In addition to the country 
trade, the public institutions located at and near the town, consist- 
ing of the State Insane Asylum and University of Alabama, furnish 
a consiuning population of over 1=500 in addition to the population 
of the town proper. 

3d. The whole purport of the present movement in Tuska- 
loosa is to establish there a large manufacturing population. This 
class is, as a rule, a spendthrift class. Their wages will average 
twice those of the same number of farmers, and are nearly all spent 
from week to week. The building, hardware and supply trade, 
will be necessarily greatly stimulated by the building up of the 
place. The present mercantile plant of the town, if we may use 
such an expression, is only sufficient to the present demand of the 
town, and any increase of manufacturing (which is a certainty) 
will immediatelv call for a large increase of the mercantile facili- 
ties of the place. 



lUSKALOOSA. • 29 



4th. The increase of the cotton export which will result from 
the establishment of the compress, and the addition to the railroad 
connections of the place, has already been alluded to. There is, 
however, a branch of export business which is yet undeveloped, 
but which possesses great possibilities. This is the fruit and 
early vegetable export trade The country around Tuskaloosa is 
finely adapted to the early raising of all kinds of small fruits, 
vegetables, grapes, pears, etc., which could be shipped North from 
Tuskaloosa at great profit. 

In addition to this, the opportunity is opened at Tuskaloosa 
for the building up of a large export grain and hay trade. As a 
hay country, the region tributary to Tuskaloosa is unsurpassed, 
and certain kinds of hay— Johnson grass, for instance— will make 
as many as three crops a season, and producing on good bottom 
lands at least three tons per acre. This hay is perennial. Once a 
stand is had, it needs no further attention except an occasional 
breaking up. The cost of cutting and bailing will not exceed $4 
per ton. This hay is worth now, in New Orleans and Mobile 
markets, $16 per ton. This is only one of many sorts of hay to 
which the soil is adapted; in fact, when land is thrown out, a 
simple breaking up will cause the growth of a heavy stand of Crab 
grass, Lespedeza and other native grasses which will cut from 
three-fourths to one-and-a-half tons per acre. Corn, on the 
average land of the country, handled intelligently, will not cost 
over twenty-five cents per bushel to raise and deliver at Tuska- 
loosa from the adjoining territory. This corn, in the home market, 
sells at an average of sixty-five cents per bushel the year round 
and is worth now in New Orleans and Mobile fifty- five cents. 
The only reason that this grain and hay is not exported largely, is 
that the merchants have devoted their entire attention and 
capital to the handling of cotton. There being thus no organized 
system, the ""armer can not realize with any certainty upon this 
branch of his crop, although the margin on these articles is very 
much greater than on cotton. This is not only the case in regard 
to these staple crops, but applies, as is alluded to above, to the 
, fruit crop; also to poultry, eggs, bacon and vegetables. In a 
word, the situation is this: That the country around is adapted as 
well to the raising of these articles, as to cotton, while the mer- 
cantile organization is adapted only to the handhng of cotton. 
This affords the opening alluded to, which is certainly an unques- 
tionable one. 



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THE TUSKALOOSA 

COAL, IRON AND LAND CO. 



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O STIMULATE the development of all these advantages, 
whose full extent we have, in the foregoing pages, very 
inadequately set forth, and, of course, to profit thereby. 
The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron, and Land Company, 
of Tuskaloosa, Alabama, was formed, and in the follow- 
ing way : 

ITS OEGANIZATION. 



On the 7th day of January, 1S87, a party of some twenty-five 
citizens of Tuskaloosa, all of whom were owners of lands lying 
in and around the city of Tuskaloosa, met at the Washington 
Hotel and decided to organize a company, with the main object of 
developing their lands. At that meeting a committee of three of 
the number present was appointed by ballot to report upon the 
value of the lands to an adjourned meeting, with the understand- 
ing that if any person should be dissatisfied with the valuation 
placed upon his lands by this committee, he could appeal to a dis- 
interested board of arbitration, the decision of which should be 
final. It was further decided that books of subscription to the 
stock of the proposed company be opened, and ,that persons 
not owning lands should be invited to join in the enterprise 
with their money, it being the spirit and sense of the meeting 
that the lands should be put into the Company, as near as 
might be, at their actual cash value. Immediately a subscription 
was raised of $1,000,000 in cash and in lands at the valuation 
fixed by the committee heretofore mentioned. On the 15th day 
of January, 1887, the stockholders met in the rooms of the Oak 
City Club and organized The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron, and 
Land Company, under a charter duly obtained from the Pro- 
bate Judge of Tuskaloosa County, under the general incor- 
poration laws of Alabama. Subsequently their charter was con- 



TUSKALOOSA. 



firmed and amended by on Act of the General Assembly of the 
State of Alabama, approved February 26th, 18S7, entitled "An 
Act to Confirm the Incorporation and Organization of the Tuska- 
loosa Coal, Iron, and Land Company, and to Define and Declare 
the Powers of said Company." At the meeting of the stock- 
holders just mentioned, the following Directors were elected : 
W. C. Jemison, B. Friedman, G. A. Searcy, W. G. Cochrane, and 
J. J. Harris, of Tuskaloosa ; J. W. Castleman, of Brierfield ; 
Robert Jemison, of Birmingham, and H. H. Peek, of Cincinnati. 
At a meeting of the Directors, held immediately after the adjourn- 
ment of the stockholders' meeting, the following officers were 
elected : W. C. Jemison, President ; B, Friedman, Vice-Presi- 
dent ; G. A. Searcy, Treasurer ; and J. W. Castleman, Secretary. 



LANDS or THE COMPANY. 

ZTHE suburban lands owned by the Company amount to about 
Four Thousand Six Hundred (4,600) acres, giving ample 
frontage on the Warrior River and on the Alabama Great South- 
ern Railroad, and almost entirely belting the present city of Tuska- 
loosa. As will be seen by accompanying maps, a large part of 
these lands lie between the Alabama Great Southern Railroad 
and the river, having one and one-half miles frontage on the rail- 
road and about the same on the river, and, so far as railroad and 
river facilities are concerned, its lots are more valuable than any 
in the present corporate limits of the city. In addition to its 
magnificent body of suburban lands, the Directors of the Com- 
pany purchased for it, at the rate of ten dollars per acre, about 
forty-three thousand acres of coal and iron lands, which are be- 
heved to be as valuable as any in Alabama. This purchase makes 
the total average cost to the Company for its lands, mineral and 
suburban, about sixteen dollars ($16.00) per acre. 

Competent experts have recently unearthed a vein of red 
hemetite on the Company's land, near Vance's Station, on the 
Alabama Great Southern Railroad, which is over sixteen feet 
thick, and which shows by actual working business analysis nearly 
fifty per cent, of iron. This is believed to be one of the most 
valuable deposits of iron ore in Alabama, and the ease with which 
it can be mined and its convenience of location — being right along 
the railroad — make its discovery of the greatest importance in the 
future development of Tuskaloosa's iron interests. This iron land 



TUSKALOOSA. 



33 



is a part of the forty-three thousand acres purchased by the Com- 
pany at $io per acre ; but the great bulk of these lands lie in the 
Warrior Coal Fields, and afford the greatest abundance and variety 
of coals, long-leaf yellow pine and other timbers. The coal 
property and timber lands of the Company, when developed by 
a railroad from Tuskaloosa to a junction with the Georgia Pacific 
and Kansas City railroads in Walker county, will probably be the 
most valuable pi'operty of the kind in Alabama. 



PUEPOSES or THE COMPANY. 

ZTHE principal object in the organization of Tme Tuskaloosa 
^^ Coal, Irox, and Land Company was to develop the valu- 
able lands owned by the Company in and around the city of Tus- 
kaloosa, by mapping thereon an addition to the present city, and 
inducing the location on or near these lands of all manner of in- 
dustrial enterprises. In furtherance of this main object, the Com- 
pany purchased the mineral lands, before mentioned, in order that 
they might be able to offer to manufacturers cheap fuel in the 
greatest abundance. To accomplish this last object the Company has 
effected an arrangement with the Tuskaloosa Northern Railroad 
Company, by which the building of this road is secured. It will 
extend from Tuskaloosa northward through the heart of the War- 
rior Coal Field, and of the Company's coal and timber lands to 
the Georgia Pacific Railroad, developing the Company's property 
and assuring to all industries an abundant supply of cheap fuel. 
The Company's coal and timber lands will be reached on this line 
in eight or ten miles. When this road is completed it is be- 
lieved that no other point in the State will be able to furnish coal 
as cheap as Tuskaloosa, The Company is in a position to foster 
successfully the manufacture of pig iron, from the fact that it owns 
a supply of both red and brown ores at convenient distances from 
Tuskaloosa, and, in addition, exhaustless veins of coal, the coking 
qualities of which have been thoroughly demonstrated. It is the 
purpose of the management of the Company to use every means 
at its command to build up a great manufacturing city at this point, 
and the following section from the act of the General Assembly 
of Alabama, confirming its-organization, shows the almost unlim- 
ited powers conferred, in this direction, by its charter : 



TUSKALOOSA. 35 



Section 3. Be it further enacted that " The Tl skaloosa Coal, Iron 
AND Land Company " has power to lay off its lands into lots and parcels, 
and to lease, sell, donate, and convey the same : To make donations of its 
lands or other property or effects to individuals or to other corporations for 
the construction of railroads leading to and from the city of Tuskaloosa or its 
vicinity, or to and from the mines and quarries of said corporation ; or to in- 
dividuals, or to other corporations to aid in the erection or operation of fur- 
naces, mills, factories, workshops, foundries, or other industrial enterprises in 
the city of Tuskaloosa or its vicinity ; or to become a stockholder in any and 
all private corporations organized for the carrying on in said citj' or vicinity 
of any industrial enterprise or business : To construct and operate furnaces, 
mills, foundries, presses, compresses, wharves, elevators, factories, workshops, 
and machine shops in said city of Tuskaloosa, and vicinitj- : To own and 
operate ferries, steamboats, barges, and other water craft crossing or navi- 
gating the Warrior River and other rivers of the State : To erect and operate 
in said city of Tuskaloosa and vicinity, gas works, electric light and power 
works, and water works for supplying said city of Tuskaloosa and vicinity 
with light and water : To construct and operate in said city of Tuskaloosa 
and its vicinity, for a distance of ten miles from the present corporate limits 
of said city, railways for the carriage of persons or the transportation of 
property, for reasonable fare or tolls, and using such motive power as may be 
deemed best, but without the consent of the corporate authorities of said city, 
must not use the streets thereof : To keep and maintain wharves, depots and 
warehouses on its own land in or near said city of Tuskaloosa : To take 
and subscribe for stock in any railroad which may be projected or constructed 
from Tuskaloosa or vicinity in the direction of Florence, Decatur, or Mont- 
gomery, in the State of Alabama, or Macon, in the State of Mississippi. 

The company has ah"eady effected a large and successful sale 
of its suburban lots, and expects to have another in the course of 
the coming autumn (1887). It is, as fast as pi-acticable, grading 
its streets through its suburban property, and running dummy 
lines to afford communication to parties building business or dwel- 
ing houses thereon. The accompanying map shows the position 
of this property, almost encircling the present town, and lying, in 
a large measure, between it and the railroad, the slightest develop- 
ment of the place in almost any direction will immediately com- 
mence to overrun it. On the other side of it is the location of the 
Friedman furnace, a 100-ton coke furnace, which will be built 
immediately, and draw after it, in all probability, a rolling mill, 
foundry and machine shops, etc.; in other words, the nucleus 
of another town to spread out over it from the other direction. 
The terms of purchase are easy — one-fourth cash, balance in one, 
two, and three years with interest from date. Special terms 
TV^ill be given to parties who will improve their purchases. 



TUSKALOOSA. 



O/ 



Sites and all reasonable inducements are offered to parties 
who will locate manufacturing plants. The Company has a num- 
ber of desirable lots and also farming lands which it will sell at 
private sale on the terms stated above. 

For all information desired about the town and Companj', 
write or apply to 

W. C. jEMISON, President, 
TrsKALoosA Coal, Iron and Land Companv, 

Ttiskaloosa^ Alabama. 




Appendix. 



HISTORY OF TUSKALOOSA. 

TUSKALOOSA having not only a great future, but also a 
very interesting past, w^e have thought that a sketch of this 
last, by vi'ay of appendix, would be pertinent and also of use to 
our readers, showing why the present educational, religious and 
social advantages of the place are so unusual. 

Tuskaloosa means " Black Warrior," from the two Choctaw 
words Tusca, " warrior," and Ltisa, "black." The town took its 
name from the beautiful river on whose banks it is located, for the 
aboriginal name of the river we now call Black Warrior was 
Tuscaloosa. The Creeks called the river Petka Hatche, which 
means "River of Canes." 

The region about the Black Warrior, where Tuskaloosa now 
stands, was in time long past claimed by the Choctaws. When 
De Soto crossed the Black Warrior on his memorable expedition 
in the year 1541, the Choctaws doubtless held all the region around 
Tuskaloosa. But as the Creeks and Choctaws were perpetually 
at war, and the Creeks were the more warlike and aggressive of 
the two tribes, the Choctaws were gradually pushed further 
towards the West, and the country about the Tuskaloosa River 
became a neutral, or, rather, debatable ground between the two 
tribes. In 1809 a Creek chief, Preechee JE?nathla, built a village 
below the falls of the river. The site of this old Indian village 
was west of Newtown, on lands which are now the property of 
J. M. Van Hoose, Esq. This town was destroyed by a band of 
Chickasaws, under the command of Col. John McKee, in the 
year 1S13. 

In 1816 Emanuel York and John Bartow, two white men 



TUSKALOOSA. 



41 



from Tennessee, settled on the plain where now stands the city of 
Tuskaloosa and raised a crop of corn. In 1818 the population 
consisted of 600 souls. The next year the town was laid out bv 
the general government, lots were sold and the town increased 
rapidly in population. 

In 1835 Tuskaloosa was chosen by the State Legislature as 
the seat of government. The first session was opened in Novem- 
ber, 1836, in Bell's Tavern, now the Washington Hotel. A site 
for the capitol was selected, and work on it commenced in 1827. 
In the same year the State Bank was located and its erection com- 
menced. The building is now occupied by J. H. Fitts, Esq., as a 
residence. To provide for the temporary accommodation of the 
State government a two-story frame building was built, in which 
the sessions of 1827 and 1828 were held. In 1829 the Legislature 
for the first time occupied its new house, and continued to meet 
there until the removal of the capital to Montgomery, in 1845. 
Tuskaloosa had been the capital of the State just twenty years. 

The State University, whose first endowment consisted of 14 
sections of land, reserved for that purpose in the Act of Congress 
admitting Alabama as a State, was chartered and located at Tuska- 
loosa in 182 1, but not opened until 1831. The University grew 
and flourished from the first. 

After it had been made the capitol of the State, the young 
city grew rapidly. Many of the owners of the rich plantations 
on the bottoms of the Warrior and Tombigbee rivers, and in the 
famous "Black Belt," made Tuskaloosa their home. The erection 
of handsome private residences distinguished this period. The 
present residence of Hon. H. M. Somerville, shown in one of the 
illustrations, was erected in 1830 by Capt. Deering. It served on 
several occasions as the gubernatorial mansion. 

The trade of the city increased rapidly with the increase of 
population in the surrounding country, and in 1845, when the 
capital was removed to Montgomery, Tuskaloosa was the com- 
mercial center of West Alabama. Not a little, perhaps the most, 
of this progress was due to the Warrior River, before the days of 
railroads one of the most important waterways of the State In 
1835 ^^^^ ^^'^^ bridge spanned the river at the point where the 
present elegant structure stands. 

The removal of the capital was a sore blow to the city. 
Many families which had made it their home followed the 
State government to its new seat ; but Tuskaloosa's spirit could. 



TUSKALOOSA. 



43 



at that time, not be broken. Immediately afterwards, in 1846, a 
stock company was organized and a cotton mill constructed and 
operated till the war. A foundry and machine shop was built in 
1848 by Leach & Avery. Plows, and other agricultural imple- 
ments, which soon acquired a wide-spread reputation, were the 
principal goods manufactured, but many other pieces of ma- 
chinery, and during the war even several canons, left the establish- 
ment. During that time a hat manufactory was run in connection 
with the establishment, and many thousands gray hats left Tuska- 
loosa to cover the heads of Confederate soldiers. In 1858 the 
watchman of the foundry was murdered and the establishment 
set on fire to conceal the crime. It was at once rebuilt, only to be 
again reduced to ashes by Federal soldiers, under Croxton, in 1S65. 

A paper mill, now used as a warp and thread mill, was erected 
about the same time and successfully operated until the end of 
the war. 

Phcenix-like, the foundry rose from the ashes for the second 
time, under the name of S. J. Leach & Sons, Mr. Avery having 
in the meantime died. But, in 1879, it was transformed into a cot- 
ton factory, under the name of Tuskaloosa Cotton Mills, owned 
by a stock company, of which J. H. Fitts, Esq., is president. The 
mills have been making money and constantly enlarging their 
capacity, even during the dullest times, and last year declared a 
dividend of 20 per cent. They employ now 150 hands, run 170 
looms, and produce 54,000 yards of cotton plaids a week. Their 
capital stock is $40,000. 

Tuskaloosa was early famed for her educational facilities. 
Even before the opening of the University, in 1S31, the schools of 
the town were exceptionally good, and within a few years after 
that event there were three flourishing female seminaries. 

One of those, which is represented on one of the plates, the 
Tuskaloosa Female College, was originally opened by the Baptists 
as a denominational school under the name of the Alabama Fe- 
male Atheneum. The financial crash of 1837 put it heavily into 
debt. After several years of struggle it was sold, and in i860 it 
passed into the hands of the Methodist Episcopal Conference, 
who for a number of years directed a successful female college in 
it. In 1871 it was sold to Rev. Mr. Larabee, who made extensive 
improvements, but became involved in debt and the building was 
sold to satisfy his creditors — purchased by private parties, and in 
1876 re-sold to Pi-of. Alonzo Hill, who opened in it the "Tuska- 



TUSKAI-OOSA. 



45 



loosa Female College.'' The school started with about lOO schol- 
ars, one-third boarders, and eight teachers. The last catalogue 
shows an enrollment of 3ii scholars and a staff of 19 teachers 
and officers. It is one of the very best, and one of the most suc- 
cessful and deservedly popular female institutes in the South. 

The Alabama Central Female College owes its origin to the 
removal of the capital. On the subject of removal public opinion 
was almost equally divided, and many politicians were appre- 
hensive that the continued ownership of the old capitol by the 
State might induce a return to it by the Legislature. Accordingly 
they gave it by legislative act to the University. This institution 
being at the time unable to use it, and as it was difficult to derive 
an income from it, the building got out of repair. A petition, 
signed by the trustees of the University, and by citizens generally, 
induced the Legislature to lease the property to a company of 
stockholders for ninety-nine years, without charge, on the simple 
condition, "• a school shall be kept " in the building. The year 
1857 saw the old capitol opened as a female college, and as such 
it is conducted to-day. For many years it has been a most flour- 
ishing school and offers superior educational advantages. The 
building is one of the best pieces of architecture dating from the 
period of its erection. 

Among the illustrations are the residences of Col. A. C. Har- 
grove, erected in 1856 by Robt. Jemison, Esq., one of the most 
enterprising, energetic and patriotic citizens of which Tuskaloosa 
ever boasted. 

The Baptist Church, the most elegant structure of its kind in 
Tuskaloosa, was completed in 1885, and owes its origin mainly to 
the liberality of Miss Sallie Moody, now Mrs. D. L Purser, of 
Birmingham, who gave the large and now exceedingly valuable 
lot and contributed most liberally to the building fund. 

The erection of the fine building for the Merchants National 
Bank and the hotel on the corner of Market and Cotton streets, 
as well as the new public school building, have been commenced, 
and will add very much to the number of modern buildings in 
Tuskaloosa, and assist in revolutionizing the appearance of the 
venerable city. 

The old University, as heretofore stated, was destroyed by 
Federal troops in 1865, but partly re-erected a few years later. A 
grant by Congress of 46,000 acres of public land, to be located by 
the trustees of the University, made a few years ago, promises — 
as the lands have all been located in the richest mineral region of 




BAPTIST CHURCH. 



TUSKALOOSA. 47 



Alabama — to make that institution in a few years one of the wealth- 
iest in the country. A resolution of the board of trustees, passed 
at their last session in June, has made tuition absolutely free. Two 
new buildings, Clark and Manly Hall, were added two years ago, 
and this summer will see the completion of Garland Hall, the 
third. 

Alabama has good cause to be proud of its University. The 
militai'y system was adopted, and has been continued ever since. 
It is not allowed to interfere with the studies, but serves to give 
the students exercise and improves the discipline. 

The Alabama Insane Hospital, the pride not only of Tuska- 
loosa, but of the State, was first endowed by the Legislature about 
1855. It was a very modest institution at the beginning, but has 
grown to magnificent proportions. But more than in size has it 
grown in reputation. It was one of the first institutions of the 
kind in this country in which all force and physical punishment 
in the management of patients were abandoned and kindness of 
treatment instituted. The patients are kept employed, and 
dances, billiards and theatricals contribute to their amusement. 
The superior administrative talent of Dr. P. Bryce, director of the 
institution, since its foundation has made it the best managed 
insane hospital in the United States, while his attainments as a 
physician and a specialist on mental diseases have procured for 
him a world-wide reputation. The patients are better housed, 
better fed, and better cared for than anywhere else, and the cost 
per capita, at the same time, is lower by about 40 per cent, than 
that of any similar institution. The Hospital mines its own coal, 
mikes its own gas, bricks, etc., and raises a large portion of its 
own food. Not a little of this work is done by the patients them- 
selves. 

Among other notable buildings in the city proper is the 
Atlanta Store. It is erected on the site of a hotel known as 
Washington Hall, which was burned in 1865. It was erected by 
Stephen Miller, and the plans were made by Col. J. T. Menifee, 
now president of Howard College, Marion, Ala. 

The bridge across the Warrior River, built in 1835, ^^^ torn 
down and rebuilt in 1S52. Both v^^ere covered wooden bridges, 
and the new bridge was burned by Croxton in April, 1S65, at the 
same time that the University and the iron foundry fell victims to 
the fury of the war. Re-erected in 1872, it was blown down by 
a fearful storm in July, 1878. The owners of the franchise sur- 
rendered it to the county, and an iron bridge was finished in 1882, 



TUSKALOOSA. 49 



at a cost of $40,000, which has stood the tests of storms and floods. 

The crowning glory of the city, the feature which gives the 
Athens of Alabama its beautiful name of City of Oaks, are the 
rows of magnificent water oaks which line the broad streets and 
avenues. A glance at the illustrations of Market and Broad 
streets, in this pamphlet, will convince anyone that those who first 
planted these trees, and those who continued the work " builded 
better than they knew." The first trees were planted by private 
parties in 1839, and in 1842 the public, that is, the city corporation, 
took charge of this beneficial w^ork and completed it to their ever- 
lasting glory. 

The youngest, but the most beneficial of Tuskaloosa's schools, 
is the public graded school, presided over by Prof. Carleton 
Mitchell. The schools were established by act of Legislature in 
1885, and have just completed their second year. The largest 
share of the credit of their establishment belongs to Hon. W. C. 
Jamison, the Mayor of the city, and the nearly 600 children which 
visited it last year are indebted to him more than anyone else for 
the inestimable privilege. A new building will be erected this 
summer, and in September the school will be able to rank, not 
only in excellence of system and method, which it has always 
done, but in regard to exterior and interior beauty and conven- 
ience, with the best of the country. 

The many advantages which Tuskaloosa offers to the manu- 
facturer, the farmer, and the lumberman, are set forth in other 
parts of this work. The sketch of its public institutions, its his- 
tory, and its educational advantages, must show it to be a desirable 
place of residence. The influence of the many schools have made 
the community one of unusual refinement and intelligence, and 
the location of the city, on a high plateau, 140 feet above the 
level of the river, is exceptionally healthy and free from malarial 
influences. A climate where an inch of ice is a rarity, and where 
the thermometer never reaches a hundred degrees, where spring, 
as charming as the traditional May-morning, lasts for three months^ 
and where the fall is merely a gradual fading of the glory of sum- 
mer, merging into a winter so short and mild that the new leaves 
commence to grow before the old ones have quite disappeared, a 
city every street of which is a miniature park, and where even 
the hottest day is tempered by a breeze — surely furnish attractions 
enough for even the most fastidious. We ask not that our state- 
ments be taken on trust ; all we ask is, come and see, and we can 
assure you of a most hearty welcome. 



LIST OK 

Industrial Enterprises Now in Operation 

TUSKALOOSA, ALABAMA. 



Tuskaloosa Cotton Mills, value about $80,000; employ 145 
hands. 

Tuskaloosa Yarn Mills, value $15,000; 35 hands, 

Tuskaloosa Street Railway, completed and in operation to 
Lake Lorraine. 

Tuskaloosa Cotton-Seed Oil Co., value $40,000; 40 hands. 

Tuskaloosa Brick and Tile Co., value $35,000; 50 hands. 

Tuskaloosa Foundry and Manufacturing Co., value $35,000; 
13 hands. 

Warrior Foundry and Machine Works, value $3,500; 4 hands. 

Robt. Wilson, Grist Mill and Wool Carding, value $4,000. 

Suspender Factory, value $3,000; 5 hands. 

Davis & Daniel (col.). Brick Yard, value $600; it hands. 

Taylor & Turner (col.). Brick Yard, value $1,000; 13 hands. 

The Tuskaloosa Manufacturing Co., paid-up capital of $90,- 
000; 7^500 spindles, 340 looms, 275 hands; makes 750,000 pounds 
yarn and 3,600,000 yards plaids, checks and stripes per year. 



LIST OK 

Enterprises Under Contract and Building 

TUSKALOOSA, ALABAMA. 



The Tuskaloosa Northern Railway. 

The Friedman Furnace, capital stock $300,ocx). 

Warrior Brick and Building Co.; 20 employes. 

W. F. Adams & Co., Brick Yard; 18 employes. 

Tuskaloosa Cotton-Seed Oil Mills, Cotton Gin, value $5,000. 
There is but pne other Cotton Gin in the country of equal ex- 
cellence with this one. 

G. T. Ingraham, Lumber, Coal and Wood Yard. 

The Tuskaloosa Building and Loan Association, capital stock, 
$200,000. 

Tuskaloosa Belt Line, steam motor, passenger and freight 
traffic. Supplies all purchased. Line will be in operation in 
November. 

Macon & Tuskaloosa Railway. Charter recently amended to 
Macon, Tuskaloosa & Birmingham R. R. 

The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron & Land Company has erected a 
number of houses for sale and rent, and will build more. 

A new hotel, constructed of brick, four stories, is now ap- 
proaching completion. 

The Merchants' National Bank is just completing a new 
building, pressed brick and terra cotta, one of the handsomest 
banking houses in the South. 

A large and commodious public school building is also build- 
ing. 

The Allen & Jemison Co., Lumber Yard and Planing Mill. 

Tuskaloosa Electric Light, Ice & Power Co., capital stock, 
$30,000. 



TUSKALOOSA. 55 



Many other buildings are under contract for construction, 
other industries are negotiating for location, and other enterprises 
are reasonably certain of being established here in the near 
future. Those we have mentioned, however, are actuaiyac/^y, and 
those mentioned under the second heading have all been secured 
to Tuskaloosa since the organization of the Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron 
& Land Company, in January last. 

Within the last few weeks, and since this book was prepared 
for the press, some important discoveries have been made, touch- 
ing the natural resources of Tuskaloosa, and many^enterprises in- 
augurated that are destined to prove of the greatest benefit to the 
city. We have not the space to speak of these matters in detail, 
but, briefly mentioned, they are as follows: 

Inexhaustible beds of both fire and pottery clay have been 
discovered immediately adjoining the city and the railroads. These 
clays have been tested with satisfactory results. Several veins 
of coal, averaging five feet in thickness, have been opened 
within ten miles of the city, on the line of the Tuskaloosa 
Northern R. R., from which coke of the first quality has been 
made. The Chicago & Gulf R. R., from Chicago to Mobile, has 
been located through the city. The projected railroad from 
Tuskaloosa to Montgomery, Ala., is taking practical shape. A 
diamond drill of the latest and most approved pattern is now bor- 
ing near the city, prospecting for coal, oil, gas, water or other 
hidden treasures. This drill will penej:rate 2,000 feet. 







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